Bucur-Barbu, Sebastian

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(b Talea, Prahova, Romania, Feb 6, 1930). Romanian musicologist, professor, composer, psaltēs, and choir conductor. He studied at the University Theological Institute (1953–7), the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory of Music in Bucharest (1957–63), and the Macedonian Conservatory in Thessaloniki (1983–5); and in 1982 he was awarded the doctorate by the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj.

After a period as a church singer, professor, and choir conductor at various monasteries, schools, and colleges in Bucharest and at the Neamț Monastery, Bucur-Barbu held the position of Professor of Byzantine Musical Palaeography and Byzantine Chant at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory of Music in Bucharest (1970–3, 1990–2006) and has been a doctoral supervisor at the Conservatory since 1996. He is the founder and conductor of the Psalmodia choir of Byzantine music of the Bucharest National University of Music (starting in 1988).

Byzantine chant remains central to his wide-ranging scholarly and research interests. His extensive research remains the most systematic scholarly treatment of the history of Byzantine ecclesiastical music in Romania, his chief contribution being the critical edition of the ...